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6 Year Old Dark Urine

02/05/2010

Question:

My 6 year old son drinks mainly clear liquids, milk and juice. His urine is seems to be very dark yellow to almost an orange color. He had blood test for his thyroid done last week and on Monday I received copy of his results. His BUN/Creatinine ratio was very high 63.33 with high on the range being 20. I am not sure what the test results mean but I understand it has something to do with kidneys. Should I be concerned?

Answer:

It is difficult to give a definite answer without having more information about your son’s health:

  • How long has his urine been dark/orange?
  • Is he healthy?  Has he had any serious illnesses in the past or present? 
  • Were your pregnancy, his birth, and his infancy  normal?
  • Has his development, both physically and mentally, been normal?
  • Why did his doctor test your son’s thyroid function, and what were the results of the test?
  • Has he ever had jaundice?  Do his skin or the whites of his eyes have a yellow color?
  • Has he recently had a strep throat or any kind of skin infection?
  • Does he urinate normally?  Has he complained of pain while urinating, or has he ever had a urinary tract infection?  Does he have to get up at night to go to the bathroom? (if so, how many times?)
  • Does he seem to you to drink a normal amount of fluids?  If not, does it seem too much or too little?  How many glasses a day?
  • Does he take any medications now or in the past 6 months?
  • Are there any diseases that run in your family?

On the lab results that you have, are the BUN and creatinine given?  (not just the ratio, but the actual BUN and actual creatinine)

Based on the information that you’ve given so far, here are some thoughts that may help:

The BUN/creatinine ratio often is an indication of a person’s body water content.  A person who is not drinking much and whose body has a lower-than-normal water content may have a very concentrated, dark-appearing urine and a high BUN/creatinine ratio.  Both of these can easily be corrected simply by giving the person more water.  If the person consistently has a high ratio and habitually does not seem to drink enough fluids, the cause of this behavior needs to be evaluated. 

Please feel free to write back providing more information, and I can try to be of more help.

 

For more information:

Go to the Kidney Diseases health topic.